Matador Records and I had a short, funny online back-and-forth today after the label called me out while announcing that Pavement will perform June 24 at the Bob Hope Theatre. (Tickets are $35 and go on sale Saturday.)
Matador, which counts Pavement among its artists, wrote that the concert “announcement is a blatant nose-thumbing to San Joanquin.com’s Ian Hill, who’d previously promised his readers, ‘the most influential indie band to emerge from Stockton, won’t be stopping here on its reunion tour.’ Hill, apparently the Cindy Adams of the Central Valley, admits his error in a subsequent post, but attempts to focus on whether or not the June 24 show is likely to turn a profit (‘we’ll probably never know how Another Planet and Pavement set up the June 24 concert. The financial details of the show most likely never will be disclosed, as information about performance fees is typically kept secret in the concert industry.’)
“Indeed, it’s a highly secretive business, and perhaps someday another savvy journalist (Albert Goldman? Fredric Dannen? Rob Jovanovic?) will get to the bottom of how Pavement could manage to play a 2000 capacity venue and still cover their vast production costs (pyro, lasers, mothership, etc.)”
In a Tweet announcing the concert, Matador then referred to my blog post as “Local scribe suggests JFK-style conspiracy.”
I’ve called Matador and offered to talk more, but so far they’ve declined. (From Matador on Twitter: “we’d be happy to discuss but aren’t sure you can afford our interview fee. Only talking to big city journos!”)
Of course, I’m neither Cindy Adams (yeah, I had to look her up too), nor is Pavement’s decision to play Stockton a “blatant nose-thumbing” directed my way. Now that the announcement’s been made, I’m sure the local Pavement show was in the works long before I blogged anything about it.
What Matador also doesn’t know is that Stockton spent millions to become an entertainment destination only to later face multi-million dollar deficits that have led to the layoff of police officers, among others. It’s therefore important to explain why some events are held at local entertainment venues and others are not.
But all the online silliness is just that – silly – and hopefully it doesn’t distract you from what you really need to take away from all this:
You should go to the Pavement show. Even if you’ve never heard of the band before, you should go.
You should go to the Pavement concert because along with Dave Brubeck and Chris Isaak, the band is one of the biggest musical acts ever to emerge from Stockton. You should go because it’s the band’s first time playing here – ever. You should go because Pavement is one of the most influential and creative bands of the past two decades.
You should go because one of the reasons Pavement hasn’t played here before is because they couldn’t get support from people like you. You should go because promoters need to know that local residents will support live music before they bring bigger concerts here. You should go because encouraging promoters to hold more concerts in Stockton can help slow the loss of money at publicly-owned entertainment venues like the Hope and Stockton Arena.
You should go because it will allow you to enjoy a great night of entertainment without driving to the Bay Area.
So take advantage of the opportunity presented by Pavement’s Stockton concert.
Go.